New York Jets offense is cooked, LeBron James thinks he'd be great without his Miami Heat stint

Brendan Abban discusses the woes of the New York Jets quarterback situation and how their outlook appears midway through the season. As well as how Aaron Rodgers may be adding fuel to the fire. Then he responds to some comments LeBron James made on how his career would have panned out had he NOT gone to the Miami Heat. Fun set of topics. Hope you all enjoy!

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's going on? Everybody. Welcometo the KBR Sports Podcast. You really
know, the best sports podcast ofyour twenty four hour day. I appreciate
each and every one of you fortuning in. Of course, if you're
new to the show, go aheadand make sure you hit the follow button,
hit the subscribe button, depending onwhatever podcast platform you are listening to.
Just to note, man, everyintroduction, at least the last two
or three introductions I've done, Ialways am about to say podcasts instead of

(00:23):
podcasts. I don't know what's goingon. I don't know what's going on
with my diction. It is allover the place, and I just need
to get it realli back and Ineed to read like ten books to get
myself back together. For whatever reason, my diction and grammar has just been
off the charts in terms of mixingup words in and out. But yes,
it's available on all podcasts platforms whereyou catch your podcasts at and of

(00:45):
course, guys, make sure youleave a review. Your reviews do help
push the podcast in the algorithm,because imagine Apple sees your review and they're
like, man, five stars onthat k WHOA And then not only you,
but like your friend your cousin,best friend, your sister, your
brother, your mom, your dad. Right, everybody leaves a five star
review eventually has the five star reviewsto start piling up. Then eventually Apple

(01:08):
on Spotify are like, damn,we need to push this person's podcast a
little bit more into algorithm because alot of people are very much enjoying it,
so we got to get that thingout there. So if you guys
can go ahead and leave some fivestar reviews, I would greatly appreciate it.
Obviously, I prefer five stars.I can't tell you how to leave
your review because all based on howyou feel about the show, So please
leave a true for review. HopefullyI provide good enough content that you feel

(01:30):
that it is worth five stars.I would really much appreciate that. But
go ahead and do that, guys. I always appreciate the feedback on the
content I make here. Of course, also make sure you, guys check
out the KVR Sports YouTube channel andall the social media platforms that will be
in the description below on the podcaston the homepage. Wherever you listen to
this episode, you're gonna be ableto catch it in the description on the

(01:52):
YouTube channel. I always upload videocontent whether it's a short or actual YouTube
video, So be expecting that there'sa video I actually was working on for
a while. I kind of willdetail some of it here, but I've
been working on a video talking aboutthe And I don't want to say it's
weird because the content is based ona poll or I guess I want to

(02:15):
say a consensus to ESPN's NBA analystsdid coming into the NBA season, right,
and they ranked like the top onehundred players I believe it was,
And on that list of the topone hundred players, Kyrie Irving was number
thirty four. I was just takenaback. I was like, thirty four.

(02:36):
Y'all think there are thirty thirty threeplayers better than Kyrie Irving and the
NBA and I was just going throughand I was looking at some of the
names and some of the reasons asto why they felt like this person was
gonna have a great season. Iwas just like, wow, And some
of these people that were on therehad just had like one really good year
or a couple a stretch of gamesthat were really good. Granted it's all
star level of production for that stretchof games that those players had, but

(02:59):
I'm like, well, can weget a bigger sample size before we take
somebody over Kyrie Irving, who's givenus a literal career's worth a body of
work, I mean, So itdefinitely goes into that and some of the
angles I feel as though to whyI think this the list is flawed,
of course, and also some addedmotivation I think that goes that might be

(03:19):
apparent in that that list that wasmade from the ESPN analyst, especially when
you look at it in comparison toprevious lists where you rank the top whatever
players of car and you see whereKyrie Irving is placed and so on.
So that's something that I'm working on. So hopefully you guys enjoyed that when
it does come out. The aimis for it to come out next Tuesday.
So you're hearing this on Wednesday,which would be November eighth, so

(03:42):
hopefully it would come out November fourteenth. Hey, I know, look at
that. I know dates Tuesday,November fourteenth. That's also the same day
for my Halo fans. That's thesame day that they dropped the Halo three
map or the Halo three maps.You know, it's a playlist that Halo
Infinite is doing. They're putting allthe og Halo three maps in there that

(04:06):
you can go ahead and just playon some of the remade maps that people
have made in Forge and so on. I'm just hyped to play Guardian.
That was my map back in theday. Me and my boy Prince,
we were be running Guardian. Weran what was it? They eventually did
put Lockout in there, but Ithink the version they put in there was
Blackout maybe I think it was.I loved Guardian, loved high Ground,

(04:28):
loed Valhalla, loved I mean,I pretty much just loved almost every map
the Pit Obviously. I love somany maps from Halo Dree that some of
them are escaping my memory just offthe top. But those are definitely like
some of the goaded ones that comeright off the rip that I can give
you. Sandtrap was really good.What other ones did I really like?
I think those are probably the mainones. I can just come up with
narrows. But yeah, guys,let's jump into this podcast talking about sports.

(04:54):
I spent my look, man,this is the beginning of the podcast.
Is probably the most personable part ofme that you get right, because
that's why I'm just talking about nonsense, especially if it's me by myself.
Sometimes if I'm talking with someone else, you'll get a version of me that
you know, I'm interacting with somebodyelse or going back and forth banter or
whatever, but just the raw versionof me. I just talk about whatever
I want to talk about what it'sjust me on here. So obviously that

(05:17):
part of it is very fun.So I always enjoy having these more I
guess you could say, intimate typeof podcasts and engaging with you all because
it feels like I'm talking to anaudience when I do this, and I'm
recording by myself, and it's kindof fun, more fun sometimes this way,
because you get to be more ofyourself. You have to hold an
audience for what, maybe however longit normally ends up being. When I

(05:39):
record by myself for about an hour, maybe over an hour's people that,
you know, people never realize howhard it is to hold be able to
talk to yourself and have an audiencebe engaged by you talking to yourself for
extended period of time. Granted,obviously you have a show run down,
You prepare for your show, youdo the rundown, and you do your
notes and things you're going to tackle. But even so, I mean,
it's still a tough thing to do. People that do this in the vein

(06:01):
of like someone like Colin Cowherd,I have no idea how that man has
been able to be on sports radiofor all these years and he's been able
to be successful doing it solo andat such a high level. I mean,
he's probably one of the biggest namesin sports obviously in terms of sports
broadcasting, and him having that noonslot he goes right up against. I
meant he doesn't. When I saydo it by yourself, I mean he's

(06:24):
the main focal point. Like formost of the show Colin is talking to
is talking at a first person typeof or let me not say first person,
but he's talking to just you,the audience, and he's not really
engaging with someone else until maybe sometimeshe brings in that the other person that
he bounces off of, like JasonMcIntyre who's currently on the show with him

(06:45):
there now right, And previously heused to be Joy Taylor and then I
forget the Christine lady was the othergirl before then too. But when you're
just kind of going off and youhave to, you know, engage and
go on for extended appear to mytime. And granted Colin does bring on
guests and so on, but that'sstill tough to do for three hours in
the slot. I mean, youthink about even Pat mcaviee. He's got

(07:08):
his guys in there that they dothe whole show with, and you know,
it's not just a solo guy.So when you're a solo act doing
it the whole time because you're you'rein ways, just a little inside baseball,
but you guys might not have askedfor this, but you're getting it
anyway. But in ways, whenyou think about when the mindset between having
somebody on for a show topic andversus if you want to have a co

(07:30):
host versus a non co host typeof show, is the fact that when
you have a co host, obviouslyyou have the luxury of having two opposite
perspectives, right, And that's clearas day. Where you might have you
get one point of view, andyou want to represent all the perspectives that
the audience can have because a lotof times, imagine when you're watching a
show and you feel like you justwant to talk to the person that's on

(07:54):
the other end, Right, whenyou have two co hosts, it increases
the odds of one of them andbeing able to say your point, You're
like, yes, yes, Soyou become more engaged immediately because that person
now has a point of view andhas voiced your point of view and your
perspective in what you're trying to say. So imagine when people are having a
Michael Jordan Lebron James goat debate,right, So many Lebron fans and Jordan

(08:16):
fans likewise always are sitting there andyou hear it when you go to the
barbershop. So you go to differentplaces and people are having the conversation amongst
themselves. You a lot of timeshear them reference the talking points that are
espoused on debate shows and whatnot,because they feel as though they share those
common views, those same common talkingpoints, so they tend to bring up
those similar things, and they'll evenreference the show or whoever they got that

(08:39):
talking point from with their own maybetwist on it. Right. And so
when you and when you're watching andlistening to something like that and you hear
somebody maybe making an argument better thanyou could have done it, You're like,
oh, I never thought about itthat way. So then naturally you
become more engrossed in it and soon. Right, So that's the benefit
of having a co host. Whenyou have three people on the show,
you obviously increase the likelihood having allthose perspectives, but depending on the platform,

(09:03):
you also have less time for eachperson to speak the conversation. It
becomes in ways, it becomes lessorganic. Right. The more people you
have on a show becomes less organicin terms of the type of conversation you
can have because there has to bea pacing to the conversation that can take
place. You don't want everybody justtalking over one another and then the audience.
It disengages the audience in a waythat you guys might not notice it,

(09:26):
but whenever you hear people talking andjust talking super loudly over one another,
it can be entertaining for a bit, but after a while you're not
really taking in any information that anybody'ssaying because everybody's just yelling over each other
and it's not being paced out well. Right, So a lot of times
when you have more than you havethree people and you're pushing it. Once

(09:46):
you go above three, it becomestougher to balance that act, right,
it becomes a way tougher balance toact. So then normally sometimes shows will
do it where they have a thirdperson, but the third person is more
of a just a chime like theinterject maybe on the off chance on certain
certain occasions depending on the topic,but they're not a normal person that you're
getting the opinion on the subject matterfrom, right, So it becomes very

(10:09):
tough. So when you see showsbe able to do a three co host
type of ordeal and it runs efficiently, that's really impressive. I don't listen
to it often, but I knowJoe Budden's podcast. They have a number
of people on that show, sothem being able to run it in the
manner that they do. The BreakfastClub was really good at that. But
you would even notice with the BreakfastClub at times, and this is me

(10:31):
taking it back to even the Angelawhen Angelaue was still in the show.
But you notice the dynamic between Charlemagne, Djenvy and Angela ye was they didn't
They weren't all vocal on every topic, right, There were some topics Angelae
you would fade to the background onsaying with Charlemagne and then you would have
Charlotte or sorry, DJ Envy,maybe take the front on. He's definitely

(10:54):
taking in front of something right now. But if you know, you know,
but you know, those are thoseare a little bit of inside baseball
into in terms of or podcasting whatever. Why is the term inside baseball?
Right? Like, that's normally Ifeel like that's the one I'm most commonly
here is, Oh, here's alittle inside baseball. It's not inside basketball,
it's not inside football. It's alwaysinside baseball. I don't know,

(11:15):
was there a show name, becausethere's definitely a show called inside the NBA,
So I don't know. I'm justcurious. But those are things you
take into account. Normally, ifa show has one person on it,
that person has to in ways andgranted, and that's why I said,
depends on the platforms too, becauseif you have the three co hosts set
up and then maybe you add afourth, if a platform is not really

(11:35):
in a situation where they don't careabout the length of the show, then
you can still have the organic conversation. And I hope that you're in a
situation where people are talking over eachother, everybody gets to kind of say
their piece and then you get tobounce off each person and keep the conversation
going. But the less people youhave, the longer you can kind of
go on those off ramps. Likewhen I have another person on here and

(11:56):
sometimes we banter, we go intooff ramps. You can do it for
longer because of the fact that wedon't have another person to have to account
for. So you think about howmuch time that takes, and especially in
post production when you're editing and whatnot. So those are just different things you
take into account. But you guysaren't here to learn about podcasting. Maybe
some of you guys want to learnabout podcasts. I know everybody pretty much

(12:18):
has a podcast nowadays, right Podcastingis one of the most competitive markets to
be in at this point in timebecause anybody can just start one. So
maybe somebody wants to learn about podcasting. I think they say that when you
have ten thousand hours and something that'slike levels as a mastery to do it.
I've been doing this since twenty fifteen, and I think right now,

(12:39):
if you were to teke check myshow log on the amount of episodes I
have. I stopped numbering them aftera while, but I'm pretty sure I
have about five hundred five hundred somethingepisodes, and that's even granted. I
had to delete some at one pointbecause you obviously have to paydoff for your
your hosting on whatever platform for themto host your RSS feed and all your

(13:03):
episodes, right, and so atone point I did something so stupid.
I think I messed up my paymentinformation and it didn't renew my membership for
the platform that hosts my podcast.And so then I it was like,
oh, you have X amount ofdays or X amount of episodes are going

(13:24):
to be wiped from the server.And I was like huh. So I
was so confused because I didn't knowwhat was going on. I was like,
wait, did I Did I getan infraction or something? And so
then I'm like scrambling to try andget below the limit, and I had
to delete some episodes to do so. And then I realized I was like,
oh my gosh, the payment informationis messed up because one of my
I had to cancel a car becausesomebody has stolen one of my cars.

(13:45):
I've had bad luck with people stealingmy debit and credit cards, just so
you guys know, but yes,that's just the thing. But now we
can get into talking about sports look, man, if you guys enjoyed the
first what this might be, say, the first fifteen minutes of this podcast,
please let me know, because ifyou guys enjoyed the more personable aspects

(14:07):
of this podcast, I will tryto make sure I don't just cut them
shorter next time. Okay, butguys, we do have a good amount
of things to talk about obviously rightnow. I think one of the biggest
topics, particularly in the NFL,is the fact that the New York Jets
at the quarterback position are hogwash.They're trash, dogwater, dumpster fire,

(14:30):
whatever adjective you want to use todescribe the New York Jets and their quarterback
situation. You probably wouldn't be toofar off with that description. But in
spite of that, the Jets havebeen able to be at least in the
competitive competitive range within the AFC.They're four and four right now, they're
third in their division. They're onegame back of Buffalo, who is five
and four, and Miami's at sixand three. So you really think about

(14:52):
it, Jets win two straight games, maybe they beat Miami in a game
or so, and if Miami losesor the Buffalo those lose, the Jets
are right there. So they're stillin playoff contention, right, and the
AFC is so so competitive. Imean, you look, you go down
the other divisions and you talk aboutthe wildcard right now, the wildcard.
Really the enemy you're looking at isin the AFC North, where you have

(15:13):
Pittsburgh and Cleveland and Cincinnati at fiveand three, with the Baltimore Ravens leading
the division at seven and two.Outside of that, you really don't You
don't have any other teams that areat five that are at five wins outside
of Buffalo. Within the AFC East, everybody else like Houston, Houston Texans,
the Colts, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Las Vegas Raiders are all

(15:33):
at four wins a piece. Right, So you're still in a realistic position
where you can, for one,you can still go for a when in
your you can still go for theconference or the division title in your division.
And then that's aside from the factthat you could end up playing for
the wildcard. Right. So whenwe talk about that, you realize though
that the Jets do have an uphillbattle in terms of their struggles because you

(15:56):
look at their upcoming schedule. Theyhave the Las Vegas coming up next week.
They have the Buffalo Bills. Afterthat the Miami Dolphins. So,
like I said, they could beatMiami, bring them down, they could
be both teams, bring them downto level, and then they could be
in that position to now capitalize onthat. They have the Atlanta Falcons,
Houston Texans, Dolphins again, theWashington Commanders, and then they have Cleveland

(16:17):
Browns and the New England Patriots.So out of their one two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, out of
their remaining nine games one two,three, four our divisional games, so
they have a chance to help themselvesimprove in that division. And they even
have a couple of guys on thatteam or in that race that they could

(16:38):
try and knock down in terms ofwild card standing, like the Raiders and
the Browns. But you realize theJets and their team and their overall organization
is seeing the gaping the lack ofperformance from the quarterback position. I mean
when you're talking about and this isa write up I have from Rich Comeni
at ESPN who's a staff writer,and he notes that the New York Jets
are sticking with their struggling quarterback ZachWillison, but his jack, his job

(17:00):
security appears to be waning. Whilecoach Robert Sala insisted Tuesday that it's lazy
to just put it all on Wilson, he stopped short of a strong endorsement.
It was a lukewarm departure from whathe has said about Wilson on September
twelve. That day, when theMRI confirmed Aaron Rodgers Achilles tear, Sala
said, I do want it tomake it very clear, Zach Wilson's or

(17:22):
Zach's our quarterback. Since then,the Jets have spread it on offense,
managing only seven touchdowns in the lastseven games. They had more sacks allowed
eight than points scored in Monday nightstwenty seven to six loss to the Los
Angeles Chargers, a game in whichWilson lost two fumbles. This is Sala
again, no, because it'd beone thing if it was just him.
Right, Changing quarterbacks is the easything to do. He and the play

(17:47):
color are the two most visible things, so when things aren't good, it's
easy to blame them, right,It's easy to blame the people who are
most visible to the camera. Salasaid everyone is at fault, from coaches
to all players, adding yes,Wilson has a lot of things that he
needs to improve on, and Iknow he understands that, but at the
same time, this is a collective. Wilson is thirty first in total QBR

(18:07):
out of thirty two qualified passers.Since replacing Rogers on the fifth play of
the season, he has only hadfive touchdown passes, five interceptions, and
a sixty percent completion percentage. He'shad only one touchdown pass in the last
four games. In that span,the offense has produced only three touchdown drives,
all being one play possessions. Andthen, in my opinion, I

(18:30):
feel as though, when you alreadyknow Zach Wilson is struggling, it's always
this weird thing because I feel forZach Wilson entirely right, because imagine you're
struggling to really get a grasp onyour job. And granted, obviously he
gets compensated well to do it,but you have all this pressure with because
do it. In large part dueto the high level draft pick that he
was, he has all this pressureto have to be able to perform at

(18:52):
a high level right and come outthere and really be one of the saviors
for the New York Jets. Especiallywhen they have such a capable team.
I think that's one of the biggestthings for the Jets, so that they
have this top level defense, theyhave weapons on offense, but then you
have this quarterback who's not able tomaximize any of it. Right. They're
only as good as they are rightnow is because of their defense. And
Salah said that earlier in the yearabout all the top quarterbacks that they had

(19:15):
beaten at that point in time wasdue to the defense. And really,
Zach Wilson just did the job ofnot messing things up entirely, right,
But he's also not making plays towin anything. So you really are just
in this flighting flight pattern where you'renot really able to advance in any type
of way that makes any meaningful change. And when you're sitting in this flight
pattern of trying to balance an essentiallya five hundred record, and the quarterback

(19:38):
who is the leader of your teamand everybody knows he's the thing that's the
anchor bringing down your team, andyour options are guys like Trevor Simeon and
I've even forgotten who their or otherbackup quarterback is, But that's just not
those aren't great prospects when you havepretty much you have journeyman quarterbacks that are
the guys that you really have toturn to. And I think it's one

(20:00):
of those things now where they're lookingat it and they they're just trying to
hold on so that Aaron Rodgers canget back. And I think, honestly,
Aaron Rodgers himself is not really helpingZach Wilson because he keeps talking about
him being able to come back thisseason or that's his goal. And so
with that being his goal, you, for one, and he's openly stated

(20:22):
it in publicly, right, andI don't really think there would be anything
else for him to say, obviously, but when you keep saying that,
oh, my goal is to comeback this season, it puts an expectation
or a pressure on the fan base, obviously knowing that Aaron also vocalized.
And I'll just read this whole riteup from also Aaron's side of things,
because I feel like he added morefuel to the fire with it, because

(20:44):
he even was caught on camera whenhe was talking with Chargers safety Derwin James
and was caught saying he'd be backin a few weeks. Then he tried
to kind of backpedal that and alludeto the fact that he felt like he
was just making a joke with DuringJames, just due to the fact that
they were represented by the same agencyin which he said. Obviously that was
said with a little tongue in cheekthere, it'd be nice to be able
to be back in a couple ofweeks. That's probably not anywhere near a

(21:07):
realistic timeline. And then when itwas brought up on the Pat McAfee show
where he shows up every Tuesday,he said it would be a few fortnits.
And for those who may not befamiliar with classic English language, a
fortnite it represents two weeks, notthe video game, but you know the
actual term fortnite. If you're readinglike an old tale English book, that's

(21:29):
what a Fortnite would be. Representstwo weeks. And when he says a
few weeks, that would put himprobably around six weeks or so eight weeks,
and then you would end up comingback towards the tail end of December,
maybe January. Right, So theJets are really in a situation.
Outlined their schedule that they have forthe rest of the season, and they're
in a situation where you're just tryingto hold on to allow Aaron Rodgers a

(21:52):
chance to come back. And ifhe's coming back at the end of December,
what you have the game against theWashington Commanders on December two, twenty
fourth, the Cleveland Browns on Decembertwenty eighth, and then your final game
of the season is January seventh againstthe New England Patriots. So there's not
much runway there after Rogers comes back. But the fact that all the hopes
are lying on Rogers will still comeback shows just how desperate this team is.

(22:17):
I mean, you even hear himsay. He says that he said
that pretty much he wouldn't be interestedin coming back unless the team was able
to, you know, was ableto be a playoff contender at that point
of the season where he was clearedby doctors, the coaching staff and so
on to be able to play.So you realize how tough a spot this

(22:37):
team is in. And I honestly, I mean for me personally, I
do, like I said earlier,I feel bad for Zach Wilson because it
has to be tough in an employmentsituation where everybody's blaming you for how bad
things are going. And I knowRobert Salaz trying to do the thing where
he spreads the blame to everybody andso on, but nobody. I don't
think people on the team are reallytrying to hear that. The people on

(22:59):
the team aren't trying to hear that. I don't think the fan base is
trying to hear that because people arewatching the game with their own two wives.
It's almost one of those things wherehe's not giving folks credit for watching
the actual game because people are watchingand they see Zach Wilson's deficiencies in primetime
full screen right, and a lotof these primetime games where maybe if the
Jets weren't on as much primetime television, you could hide Zach Wilson's inabilities deficiencies

(23:23):
because nobody's watching the Jets as much. But with the anticipation of Aaron Rodgers
being the guy for this team,they got as many nationally televised games for
this Jets team as they could.And now Sunday Night Football you're watching them,
Monday Night Football, you're watching them. I mean, he's getting exposed
out there, and it's now it'sgone even far beyond just the Jets fan

(23:45):
base. But the overall NFL fanbase, and just even people who might
be casual fans that watch the gameare exposed to how bad he is because
they're playing his games on primetime television. So I think it's worse for him.
I feel bad for him. Ithink that for this Jets team.
I when I talked about this topicearlier, even in the season, I
said, I don't think this isa situation where Aaron Rodgers will retire after

(24:08):
this season, because I think theteam is so good. He realizes that,
and at that age of forty yearsold, I mean, you don't
get that. You're not gonna getthat many cracks to do this again,
right, especially with this level oftalent. So you want to be able
to try and maximize on every singleopportunity. You don't want to let a
season go by and just say,oh, we'll just chalk it to next
season. No, you're hoping thatyou can come back and have an opportunity

(24:32):
to try and compete for a championship, whether that be this season or next
season. But you're hoping that thisseason is one of the years that you
get a swing at it. Becausenaturally, if you get in that position
once you're in the playoffs, Lookthree game anybody, you know, you
just got to win one game eachweek. That's all it is. So
I think that's one of those thingsthat they look at and as a team,
they all realize that where that they'refishing at and how that can hold

(24:56):
them back. Now, if you'reone thing I think that's twenty though,
is that I look at some ofthe quarterback moves that have been made.
Right, You go and see nowthe trade of Josh Dobbs going to the
Minnesota Vikings. You see the Ramsgo and sign Carson Wentz, right,
and you think about these moves,like, should the Jets have just made
a move and gone and signed aguy because you've seen him all season,

(25:18):
you saw him in the off season, you saw him in the preseason,
and people knew what Zach Wilson was. We saw Zach Wilson last year.
Maybe there was a belief that hehad developed to a degree that or he
would be better than what we sawfrom him last year because last year was
especially bad. I mean, thedude got benched twice last year. Two
times he got bench and so you'relooking at that and you're like, well,

(25:41):
they probably had a good amount offaith, maybe believing Aaron would maybe
rub off on him some degree.Who knows, I don't know, but
that might be some of the ideathat they thought with Aaron Aaron Rodgers being
in the quarterback room that things wouldbe a lot better for Zach Wilson.
And to be honest, he hasbeen better than last season. That's not
saying a lot, but in termsof how much better he has been,

(26:03):
that's not saying it's not the worldright. But I think it's one of
those things that now you really startto question those decisions for this team.
The more they lose, the morepressure is gonna be on the decision making
of the front office and deciding tonot bring in somebody else. I think
that the more that they are fallingout of that contention is gonna shine a
brighter light on that. And Ithink, I don't know, man,

(26:26):
I think it would have been toughbecause when you have a guy like Josh
Dobbs just walk into the Vikings,into that Viking situation and or sorry,
yeah, when he walks into thatViking situation, he's able to just win
a game without even knowing his teammates'names. You sit there and you're like,
well, how much of the playbookthat these guys really need to know,

(26:49):
Especially when you're talking about Parsley CarsonWentz or someone else picking up the
reins of the offense and just tryingto tread water. You really debate how
much they need to know. Justgo out and win football games. And
naturally, the more of the offenseyou know, the better you get.
There's videos out there of Josh Dobbsestablishing his cadence with his offensive line.

(27:11):
That's how real it was in termsof his newness to the team and not
knowing anybody. So, yeah,that's nuts, that's nuts. It's truly
crazy, man. But the NewYork Jets are going to be a team
to watch. I think it's goingto be interesting to see how their season
continues to unfold and just how thingsproceed going forward with their quarterback situation,

(27:33):
and if we're going to see we'vealready seen the change in tone from Robert
Salah, right, and naturally,if you bench Zach because now you're in
a weird situation. You stuck byZach Wilson earlier in the season, right,
you said he's your guy, youbelieved in him, he hasn't paid
off the belief entirely. I guessfour and four you're still in the chase,
right, But naturally you would havehoped that at least if he would

(27:56):
have been a league average quarterback,be maybe five and five and three,
six and two, who knows ifhe was even league average, But dudes
has the thirty first QBR out ofthirty two qualifying quarterbacks. Garbo like,
that's bad, man, that ishorrific. So that's just yeah, we'll

(28:22):
leave that there. Just leave that. Well, you know, when you
take the trash out, let's justtake that topic and throw it out with
that, because talking about the Jetsis not something that any football fan wants
to really do. But here weare now talking about well, I guess
maybe in terms of trash takes andtrash topic to some degree, I think

(28:45):
this take in terms of when we'rereferencing this NBA take from Lebron James,
I think it is a garbage takein my opinion, but maybe you guys
will differ. Let me know whatyou guys think. So, just to
give some background, Lebron James priorto their most recent game against the Miami
Heat, in which he ended uptalking with some reporters while he was in

(29:07):
shoot around before the game and talkingabout his time with the Miami Heat,
and I guess at some point,I don't know if he got asked or
maybe he was asked about the impacthe felt like this team had on him.
But Lebron just offers up the statementsaying that I think I would still
be at this level no matter ifI would have come here or not.

(29:29):
Let's not get it twisted. Thefour years I was here, it was
amazing. I loved everything about it, loved this franchise. This franchise's top
tier. It's one of the bestfranchises in the world. But as far
as my career, my career wasgoing to be my career as far as
individually, because I know how muchI put into the game, I know
how much I strive to be asgreat as I can be. But as
far as what I'm able I wasable to learn here was second to none,

(29:55):
that's for sure. So that's thestatement from Lebron. Now, Okay,
I have two minds of this,right. This is where it helps
to have a second person here.But because you get I'm giving you both
perspectives here for how I see this, so or maybe this is one person

(30:15):
who knows you guys tell me.I feel as though what Lebron is trying
to convey here is that if Ididn't come to Miami, I would still
be a great player in terms ofmy work ethic, what I'm able to
do on the court, all thosethings, in terms of the dominance I've
been able to have on the court, and similar to what he was doing

(30:38):
in Cleveland before, you know,prior to he had won like two MVPs
in Cleveland back to back, hadled multiple sixty win teams and so on,
and had one finals appearance in Clevelandat that time. So I think
maybe he's alluding to the fact that, look, he would have still found
some level of success and been asgreat at least as an individual player.

(31:00):
Like what you weren't gonna now sayhe doesn't go to Miami, he wasn't
always gonna also gonna be a careeraverage of twenty seven, seven and seven.
Right, So to that extent,I understand where Lebron's coming from,
and I get it because I don'tthink his work ethic would have changed in
Miami. But now I pushed backbecause when he says, I'm at this
level. He says, I wouldhave gotten to this level. Now,

(31:22):
that's where I pushed back because you'renot specifically specifying when he says individually.
That's why I give that other thatother perspective, because he said, at
least individually, I would have beenthis. But when you're saying at this
level, like, part of whereyou are as an individual now, at
this level is because of the respectand what you earn from being in Miami
and what you learn from that spotLebron James. Prior to getting his championship

(31:48):
in Miami, there was so muchtalk about him not ever being able to
get the monkey off his back,about him not being able to show up
and despite the fact Lebron has hadamazing place performances even before he went to
Miami, but the fact that peoplefelt as though that lost to the Celtics.
But the year before he left tocome to Miami, the Celtics were

(32:13):
a better team, without question.But it was one of those things that
people really started to doubt about Lebron, like you you're supposed to go out
swinging, and despite the amazing statshe had, it was one of those
things that maybe like one thing thatI always felt as though I understood what
people were talking about when the storycame out that at the halftime of Game

(32:35):
seven against Golden State in twenty sixteen, Lebron was having a great first half
by Lebron's measures, right in thathalftime, apparently Tyler went to Lebron and
started chewing him out in front ofeverybody on the team, telling him he
needs more from me. Lebron's like, I got this much, I'm doing
this, I'm doing that, andTyrone Lew says, you're not giving me

(32:58):
everything you have, right, andhe's saying this to Lebron James. And
at this point Lebron could have hadtwenty whatever, He could have had twenty
points, eight, rebound, fivewhatever. He was having a by all
accounts, he was having a greatgame, but Tyrone lu still said,
you're not giving me your best.Then Lebron comes out in that second half
of Game seven against the Warriors,and you see how he played in that

(33:21):
Game seven. He was dude,was still as dominant as he has ever
been, right even having one ofthe most iconic chase down blocks, probably
the most iconic chase down block ofall time in terms of just chase down
blocks and that moment in that gameseven, especially when they have reached that
level of attrition in terms of scoring, and he was able to get that
block that was massive, right,And that's the extra effort that you get

(33:46):
out of him in that moment.I bring that up to say that it
didn't feel like you were getting thatsecond half level of effort when you watched
the Celtics game I think it wasGame six in Boston from him, despite
the great stats that I think hehad, like nineteen eighteen rebounds something like
that, and I think that's oneof those things that people held against him.

(34:10):
Obviously. I think there's always beenthis thing about killer instinct with Lebron,
and to be fair, I don'tI don't think it's fair when people
always trying to say somebody has tobe like Kobe, have to be like
Michael, and this thing about killerlike, how do you even quantify killer
instinct? Right? I think thebiggest thing that Lebron, Now, this
is what I will say because Ido remember at that point in the time

(34:31):
of his career, Lebron was veryinfamous for doing this thing where it was
always a thing of he had tomake the right play right, and technically
by basketball standards, you're like,yes, that was the right play.
But a lot of the times it'slike, man, when you're that guy,
if you got a dude on you, and you, especially at that

(34:53):
point in Lebron's career, he couldget bipractically anybody on the court and he
could get to the spot he wantedto get that too, but his jumper
wasn't where it obviously is, orwhere it was in Miami and whatever eventually
would become on his second stint inCleveland and now with the Lakers, right,
So taking all those things into account, a lot of times Lebron would

(35:15):
pass up taking those last second shotsor taking driving the ball and get into
the free throw line. That wasone of the biggest pain points for him
earlier before he went to Miami wasthe fact that Lebron just wouldn't take it
to the paint and just go inthere get fouled, like put the put
the pressure on the defense, putthe pressure on the refs. Like if
you don't get found, they don'tcall it. Fine, but at least

(35:36):
you're doing what you do best.You're afraid train going downhill at the defense,
right. But he was always knownfor being the good the dude that
would attract all that attention and endup kicking the ball out. He would
always be the guy that end upsharing the ball, getting it to other
guys and so on. The peoplehated it because sometimes just like bro,
like nobody's gonna kill you if youlike, take the shot. Take the

(36:00):
shot. They're not double teaming you. You got you got solo coverage,
like create something. Take the shot. But Lebron was always the guy that
was gonna make the right basketball play. And it really wasn't until Miami where
and I don't want to discount obviouslythe shot he hit. I think it
was Game two against Orlando where hehits the inbound catch and shoot shot against

(36:24):
Orlando. I think, yeah,I'm pretty sure it was Game two in
Cleveland where he hits that shot overRashard Lewis or Hito Turkulu against Orlando Magic.
And I think I remember, Iremember like it was yes. I
think it was Kevin No, itwas Marv Albert on the on the call,
he's like Lebron three four or oneyes at the buzzer. I remember

(36:49):
that, think like it was yesterday. Man, because I was watching my
older brother and I don't remember I'venever seen somebody get so sick, oh
man, because that was like atthe p of when people were comparing Kobe
and Lebron. You know, mostof my family is, or at least
me and my older brother. Iwon't speak for my sister and my parents
definitely not. My parents aren't Lakerfans at all, but I won't speak

(37:12):
for my sister, but me andmy older brother are Laker fans. And
my little brother has always been theLebron fans, so he's pretty much just
gone wherever Lebron goes. And thenwhen Lebron went to Miami, my little
brother just stuck with Miami. Andthen even when Lebron left, he's just
always been a Miami fan. Now, but he's always loved Lebron. But
at that point in time, thatwas what two thousand and eight, two
thousand and nine when they hit that, Yeah, I think it was two

(37:34):
thousand and nine, because the Magicwent on to play the Lakers in the
finals. Yeah, two thousand andnine, Lebron hits that shot. Everybody's
talking about how great Lebron is.My brother was sick because that was one
of the things that was talking about, like does Lebron have the clutch genie?
And when you hit a shot likethat, you're just like, oh,
well, I guess Lebron is clutched, right, Oh man. When

(38:00):
you think about some of these memoriesand they come up, it's so funny,
but it feels so long ago.Two thousand and nine is fourteen years
ago. Gosh damn man. Butand you so many people now you can't
even imagine a world where people atalking about Lebron not being clutched. But
really that was the that was thenotion before he won his first championship,

(38:22):
and so for him to really saythis thing about he would still be at
this level. I don't know,man, I think he I think he
gets there maybe a little later,possibly because I think the experience of going
to Miami his first season, havingto be the villain, going through the

(38:42):
slumps of the twenty eleven finals.I mean, Lebron was flat out bad
in the twenty eleven finals, especiallyby Lebron's standards, and especially in those
fourth quarters. That was where you'reyou said, this guy was not clutch.
He don't got it. He isnot that dude. Right that those
were the almost where it was,it was at its most prominent, and

(39:04):
the Big Three was under probably it'sthe most the biggest amount of scrutiny had
ever been under outside of I thinkwhen they went down three two to Boston.
Yeah, when they went down threeto the following year to Boston and
Lebron had to have that amazing Gamesix. I remember people were talking about
the Heatles breaking up and if theylost to the Celtics that year, they

(39:27):
would have People were saying that theteam should break up, and Lebron went
berserk. I mean, that wasone of the greatest playoff performances you'll ever
see. And they end up beatingBoston in seven games, and they go
to the finals obviously beat the HokomaCity Thunder. But I don't when I
said I think he would have gotto that level later is I think he
was forced to battle those demons andstuff as a result of that first NBA

(39:51):
Finals or sorry that finals, withthe first finals, with the Heat and
because they were such they were sovilified. They were this juggernaut of they
were this pariah doing something that theNBA media had never seen before. Nobody
was okay, with, so peoplevilified the fact that the Heat were this
team just choosing where they wanted togo, forming their own super team,

(40:14):
kind of trying to force the Chipsin their way to win a championship,
and people hated it. So obviouslythey received harsh coverage during that timeframe.
And it's funny because I don't Lebronwas. Lebron was a bit of a
darling up right up until you startedto see the script sort of flip in

(40:37):
twenty ten, especially after the Celticsloss. You saw it starting to somewhat
flip. People people were like,oh man, this guy ever gonna,
you know, get to get backto this point. And because to Lebron's
credit, he was right that thefact that they just couldn't attract talent.
He talks about that further in thisstory, and he expounds upon the fact

(41:00):
that he tried. He went tothe front office try to help in free
agency, trying to bring people toCleveland. People did not want to come
to Cleveland, and so he waslike, dude, that was my whole
reason of going to Miami was justto play with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.
The whole purpose was to win achampionship. In fairness to him,
they did that, right, Theywon They won two championships there, not

(41:21):
three, not four, not five, not six, not seven, but
two. For anybody that's look,I'm not just being an ass here,
for anybody that knows that was somethingLebron did. When they were talking about
how many championships do you expect towin at the introductory parade for the for

(41:42):
the Big Three, he was like, not one, not two, not
three, not four. Man,that's a moment. But yeah, I
think that naturally Lebron would have wentthrough this that type of vitriol after not
being able to win a ring forso long, and he kind of would
have maybe taken on more of thatvillain role and had to face those demons

(42:05):
and stuff, but just had alater point and at that point, I
mean, I don't know. Lebron'sin the Goat conversation a large part because
of his all around statistical prowess andstuff. Yes, that's what a lot
of people prop up as to whythey think he should be the Goat and
so on, because obviously by aring count, he's not there by just
pure accolades. I don't think.I mean, he's not there. He

(42:27):
doesn't even have as many MVPs asMichael Jordan nor Kareem Abdul Jabbar, so
when you talk about those type ofthings, but a lot of it is
the statistical, all around statistical prowessand the longevity. That's always been Lebron's
biggest argument. It's the longevity.But if you just if you then hamper
the rings and cut them in halfto maybe saying Lebron's so great, I
believe he would have won at leastone or two. But if you cut

(42:51):
the rings in half, well hemight win more MVPs maybe, But the
hell them what they mean in comparisonto some rings, because I don't care
what people try and do with thisthing about championship, trying to lessen the
value of championships. People have beentrying to do that lately, and it
pisses me off because it's one ofthese things that look on it's different from

(43:14):
the NFL, where you have twosides of the football. You literally cannot
impact one side of the football unlessyou are so bad on your side of
the football the other side is sufferingbecause they have to keep running out there.
Because you can't either you can't stopsomebody, or you just keep your
offense is so putrid Jets, thatthe defense is just out there all game
trying to stop the other team.Right, in basketball, you are in

(43:35):
a position to have so much impacton the game that you can directly influence
the result of the game by sucha large margin that you're great. If
you are so great, you shouldbe able to lead at least one team
to a championship. Every one ofthe all time greats should be able to
if you're at that level of gradeI'm talking about like top ten, top
fifteen, topped that level of echelontype of guy, you be able to

(44:00):
lead, be able to lead atleast one team to a championship. That's
simple, right, So when you'retalking about Lebron, I think he would
have been able to get one,at least one, probably two. I
think he was so good he wouldhave gotten two, right, especially during
the time frame wheen the East wasa bit you know, the Big Three
Celtics weren't gonna last forever, right, and so I think at that point

(44:23):
the East was wobbly. And it'sweird when you play out the situation of
looking at how maybe the East wouldhave looked. If Lebron doesn't go to
Miami, I don't know what thesituation is if we're talking about him going
somewhere else, but if he ifhe just stayed in Cleveland, there's no
guarantee Lebron wins a ring in thenext You look at the teams that ended

(44:43):
up coming up right, you lookat the Celtics were a force up until
what two thousand and ten, twentyeleven, I'd say, no, not
not even no, I'm tripping.They were a force all the way through
to like twenty and twelve, yeah, twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, I'd
say. But then in those evenin those years, you started having the

(45:06):
newcomers coming up, like the ChicagoBulls. You had the Pacers coming right
with Paul George, Danny Granger,Roy Hibbert, so like, you had
all those guys coming up right,and so there was competition in these And
then if you don't have Lebron andDwayne Wade pairing up with each other,
d Wade's on the heat, stilltrying to get people to come there and
play with him. If Chris Boschgoes there, then he are vastly improved.

(45:29):
They might not be the favorite thatthey were with all three of them,
but they are vastly improved now thatWade has a bona fide other option
aside from himself. Right, So, if Lebron just tries to stick things
out in Cleveland and try to finda way to win things in Cleveland,
I don't know, at what pointdoes the East become so much softer that
he has a chance to win itall. I don't know. It's really

(45:52):
interesting when you do the thought experimentbecause that Bulls team, what even the
against the Heat? I think theywent five games against the Heat. The
Bulls did, But that Bulls team, if you have that bull team against
maybe a CAFs team, I don'tknow. Man, by the time the
Bulls came along and they were viableas what twenty twelve twenty thirteen, I

(46:15):
think twenty thirteen is when they wentto the Eastern Conference finals against the Heat.
I think it was twenty thirteen,or was it twenty twelve. I
think it was twenty twelve. Ithink I don't know. I think it

(46:37):
was twenty Maybe it was twenty thirteen. I might be tripping. It doesn't
matter. But really, if youguys want to know we can pull it
up, but I will say thatthat's an interesting thought experiment because man,
and we don't and if Lebron doesn'tdo that, if they don't all do
the Miami thing, I don't evenknow how much player movement we have because

(46:59):
then you even have like Melo goingto the Knicks and Carmelo get when Carmelo
gets traded to the Knicks. Imean they were there was no point that
Knicks were as good as Miami.But it's just interesting. Miami had such
a vast talent gap on all theother teams in terms of top end talent

(47:19):
that you just realized nobody else wasgonna really be able to mess with them.
And similar thing with the Celtics.The Celtics were all around just so
good and their top end talent wasalso fit so well together that nobody was
gonna beat them and so but thenthey were getting older, and you talk
about a Knicks team with Melo andMarie Stottemeyer and I don't know, man,

(47:44):
there were a lot of interesting teamsduring that time. I mean they
were irrelevant to something. I don'twant to say entirely irrelevant, but part
of their irrelevance was because of thedominance of the teams like the Heat and
the Celtics. You even wonder howmuch how much more success the Celtics have
if he aren't in their way twentyeleven, right when the Heat lose to

(48:06):
the Mavericks, probably have the Celticsgoing back there again after losing to the
Lakers, and they play the Mavericksright twenty twelve, they might get there
again. It's crazy when you thinkabout it, but yeah, I don't
think. I think Lebron's statement ispretty short sighted, and even he even

(48:30):
said as much. He says thathe probably wouldn't. He tweeted it on
Twitter. I made sure I likedthe tweet on Twitter because he even noted
that he doesn't. He doesn't hewould have probably half the amount of rings
if he were to have. I'mgonna quote him exactly. He said,
this is the he's replying to thistweet, or he's quote tweeting this tweet.

(48:50):
He says it says this from LegionHoops. Lebron said he'd still be
just as dominant if he never wentto Miami. Per Anthony Chang agreed,
question Mark, this is what hesays you, damn right, I wish
I would still be I'm chosen.Ain't nothing changing that. Maybe less rings,
but dominant from start to finish.Now, I look, I I

(49:21):
think that I understand what he's sayingfrom it. Like I said, I
understand what he's talking about f anindividual perspective. But there was a lot
that was evident that changed in Lebron'spsyche and how he approached the game and
so on after he spent time withit. Heat even his leadership would change,
right, He became a better leaderafter playing in Miami, and it

(49:42):
was a situation where he then couldgo back home to Cleveland and show people
at Cleveland how to win and howto you know, what championship culture looked
like, what it takes to wina championship. Before then, Lebron was
just so great. He was justgetting there. He was able to just
play when he first got there againstthe Spurs. I mean that was just
raw greatness, right, that washis raw talent, his skills and everything
like that that was able to propelthat Cavaliers team to that finals. Right,

(50:06):
But he didn't learn how to win. He didn't learn like what the
culture of a winning team should looklike they were just so good because in
large part because of his greatness,and obviously they had great defenses under Mike
Brown, not those years of histime in Cleveland, but they didn't learn
of what like a championship organization lookslike, what are the building blocks for

(50:27):
that? What are some of thetendencies, the travel plans, the camaraderie,
all those things that a team putsup that He even said that's one
of the things that makes the Heata world class organization alongside teams like the
San Antonio Spurs and the Los AngelesLakers, is that they don't play that
stuff and they go and get playersthat they know will buy in. He

(50:47):
even says it in the quote.He says, Look, you can go
and get all these different guys thatcan cut the top. Management can say
whatever they want to say, buta lot of times the players have to
buy into it. But also Ithink he also undersell it a bit because
some of that you also have tohave a franchise that knows how to pick
those players, and they Heat havea fantastic had done a fantastic job of
being able to pick those players overthe years. Knowing that a guy like

(51:09):
Jimmy Butler would be the perfect buyin. I mean even at Dwayn Wade's
recommendation, right, Dwyane Wade wasthe one that recommended that the Heat go
after Jimmy Butler once he became eventavailable, and he told pat Riley and
Mickey Harrison that that guy would repis emblematic of Heat culture. After Dwayne
Wade had played in Chicago with Jimmy, so he knew the kind of dog

(51:30):
that he had in him. Soyeah, man, I think I think
I pretty much send my piece onthis. I do think. Let me
know what you guys thinking about theEastern conference in the area I brought up.
I think it's a very interesting prospect, but I am very curious to

(51:52):
hear you guys thoughts on it.But guys, I apologize. I gotta
wrap up now because my throat I'mlike hiccupping, So it's really bad.
It's getting to me. So Iapologize, guys, But please make sure
you guys do leave a review ifyou enjoyed this episode of the podcast.
Also, please go ahead and sharethis episode of the podcast with a friend,

(52:12):
family member, whomever you name it. I can't tell you who to
share it with. But I hopeyou share it with somebody, and hopefully
if you listen this far in thepodcast, hopefully you enjoyed yourself and you're
willing to either comment a message.You can send me a message on my
social media's as well. Those aredown in the description of the podcast and
all that jazz. So, guys, of course, if you guys want
to propose any topic for me totalk on the show, I'm happy to

(52:35):
talk about anything on the show.I always say this, and nobody ever
sends anything for me to talk aboutif they want me to talk about the
topic with somebody or if I havesomebody on here that can talk about it
with. But I did have acouple of topics last time I had an
interview when I think it was withI had a doctor on here during the
timeframe of the pandemic, and thedoctor was just kind of going on about
what the impacts the pandemic have hadon athletics and so on. Write in

(53:00):
with questions about that during that timeframe, So that was interesting. But yeah,
guys, go ahead and send insome topics that you want me to
want me to talk about. I'llprobably post one of those sticker things on
Instagram or on the community page onYouTube asking hey, if you want a
topic covered in the podcast, andI'll do it, like maybe the Monday

(53:21):
or Tuesday. I'll probably do itthe Tuesday morning before the show so people
have time before it gets recorded andposted the following Wednesday. So guys appreciate
everything that you guys have. Youknow, you guys sticking around and listening
to the podcast. It always meansa lot. And of course until next
time, y'all, I'm out.